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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 4, 1912
Mike Livoda, Organizer for U. M. W. A., Beaten in Huerfano County, Colorado
Affidavit of Mike Livoda
-Sworn to on June 20, 1912, at Las Animas County:
From the Denver Post of June 27, 1912:
ATTORNEY GENERAL ASKED TO
ASSUME PROSECUTOR
———-
Other Authorities Fail to File in
Assault and Robbery Case.
———-Governor Shafroth has been reminded that when a county prosecuting officer fails to do his duty when facts are presented sufficient to make a prima facie case the attorney general of the state can step in and personally take charge of the prosecution. When Attorney General Benjamin Griffith returns Friday he will be instructed by the governor to proceed against the five men who dragged Michael Livoda, organizer for the United Mine Workers of America, from his bed, robbed him of his union papers and ordered him to leave Walsenburg and Colorado.
John McLennan and John R. Lawson, in charge of the organization of miners, made the request that the state executive take action after District Attorney McHenry of Las Animas county failed to act. Deputy District Attorney Undershot, at Walsenburg, also refused to cause the arrest of the accused men.
McLennan and Lawson gave the names of these men to Governor Shafroth to turn over to the attorney general for prosecution: Charles A Kaiser, assistant superintendent of the Walsen mine; Deputy Sheriff Carr, stationed at the Walsen mine; James Farr, deputy sheriff, stationed at the Ravenwood mine, where Livoda was beaten, and a nephew of Sheriff Jefferson Farr; John Neish, superintendent of the Ravenwood mine, and Joseph Watson, guard at the Ravenwood mine. They claim to have witnesses to prove the five men guilty of the assault and robbery
Livoda was asleep in the house of a friend on the night of June 13 when five men entered the place, went through his clothes, took all union documents, marched him through the camp with mouth bound so he could not cry out, and when he reached the open country turned him loose after firing four shots and threatening to kill him if he came back.
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[Emphasis added.]
From the Denver Post of June 30, 1912:
ASSAULT ON MINER IS TO BE PROBED
———-“We have asked for affidavits in the case of assault upon Organizer Michael Livoda of the United Mine Workers,” says Governor Shafroth, “and if they are sufficient to base criminal prosecution upon we will ask the district attorney of Huerfano county to prosecute. If he refuses, then the attorney general’s office will take the case in hand and bring the defendants into court.”
The governor held a conference with Attorney General Benjamin Griffith over the case and reached these conclusions. They agreed that, in the event that District Attorney A. W. McHendrie of Huerfano county refused to file information against the accused men it would be the duty of the attorney general to take the initiative. Recently the supreme court decided in the penitentiary graft cases that where a district attorney declines to file informations in a criminal case the attorney general had the authority to take such action.
In the Livoda case it is asserted that District Attorney McHendrie declined to go after several residents of Walsenburg who, it is alleged, on June 13 dragged Livoda out of bed, beat him badly and warned him that he would be killed if he remained in Colorado.
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[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III
https://www.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/3
Affidavit of Mike Livoda, June 20, 1912, Las Animas County, Colorado
-from CIR Volume VIII, page 7042
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3993331&view=page&seq=9&skin=2021
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3993331&view=page&seq=64&skin=2021
Newsclips from Denver Post of June 27th and 30th, 1912
-from Mike Livoda at Findagrave
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/101493678/michael-s-livoda/photo
See also:
Oral History Interview with Mike Livoda, 1968 November 8
https://mediaspace.du.edu/media/Oral+History+Interview+with+Mike+Livoda%2C+1968+November+8-+A.+Side+B./0_mr7tcqjt
https://mediaspace.du.edu/media/Oral+History+Interview+with+Mike+Livoda%2C+1968+November+8+-+C%2C+Side+B./0_8avhprgd
Transcript: Harold Black’s Interview with Mike Livoda, Nov 8, 1968
https://cudl.colorado.edu/MediaManager/srvr?mediafile=MISC/UCBOULDERCB1-76-NA/1788/narv_coloradoCoal_transLivoda1.pdf
Tag: Mike Livoda
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mike-livoda/
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday January 31, 1917
Washington, D. C. – Government Printing Office Publishes Reports
-10,000 Copies of Eleven-Volume Sets of Testimony Submitted to Congress by Commission on Industrial Relations
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John McCutcheon – Colorado Strike Songs